Program Spotlight

Meet “Bertha’s Last Stand,” runner-up at the 2014 Red Bull Soapbox Race in Seattle. Though not affiliated with or supported by WSDOT, a group of soapbox racers from Machias, Washington were so inspired by Bertha that they designed and built their own soapbox tunneling machine to drill through the competition. One of 36 teams that built and raced homemade cars through Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood, … more

Keeping the public informed about our work to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct is an important part of what we do every day. Our goal is to give you as much access as possible to this amazing project, which is why we regularly post updates, photos and videos of our progress. We even offer walking tours from our information center, Milepost 31, to a viewing platform that overlooks the pit where tunneling began in summer 2013.

As reported elsewhere on our website, work to access and repair the SR 99 tunneling machine is coming along. We’ve heard from some people that Seattle Tunnel Partners’ repair plan is hard to picture. Enter STP’s Chris Dixon, who was nice enough to narrate a video that explains what crews are doing to resume tunneling by March 2015. Watch it on YouTube or download a WMV file.

We’ve been asking you to do your part to reduce congestion when SR 99 closes for four days starting Friday night, Aug. 22. That includes things like changing your commute habits and choosing an alternate way to get around.

But what are we, the agencies tasked with keeping traffic moving during this closure, doing to help? Quite a bit, actually. Here’s a roundup of some of the steps we’re taking to help you and your fellow commuters through the closure.

You may have heard that SR 99 will close for four straight days starting Friday night, Aug. 22. It’s the longest full closure of SR 99 in Seattle since crews demolished the southern mile of the Alaskan Way Viaduct in 2011. While this is probably not welcome news for travelers, it is a sign of progress at the tunnel’s north portal.

The 2011 demolition of the viaduct cleared the way for construction of the tunnel launch pit and the commencement of tunneling. During this … more

Seattle Tunnel Partners, our contractor for the SR 99 Tunnel Project, is remodeling the giant concrete box where they assembled, tested and launched Bertha, the world’s largest tunneling machine.

Fittingly, Bertha’s launch pit is massive – 400 feet long and 80 feet wide. It was 80 feet deep, but it’s a little shallower now due to the remodel, which is turning the pit into part of the future State Route 99.

Less than three years ago, crews demolished the southern mile of the Alaskan Way Viaduct. When they did, they shifted traffic onto a new section of State Route 99 south of downtown Seattle.

Much of that new section of SR 99 is permanent, but the piece west of the stadiums is temporary. This curving stretch of road takes drivers around the SR 99 tunnel construction site and connects to the remaining section of the viaduct near South King Street. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s … more

Just in time for Bike Month, we opened a new permanent connection between the on-street bike lanes south of South Atlantic Street and the shared-use path from South King Street. Here’s a map that shows the improvements, which include:

A dedicated, 14-foot-wide shared-use path with improved paving.

Improved lighting.

A separate northbound and southbound path for more efficient navigation.

You may have noticed more construction along State Route 99, just north of the Battery Street Tunnel. That work is part of the SR 99 Tunnel Project, but it has its own name – the North Access Project. It’s also being built under a completely different contract than the one we have with Seattle Tunnel Partners, the contracting team responsible for most of the tunnel work. A map of major contracts within the program can be found here (pdf 1.1 Mb).

A few blocks northeast of the Space Needle, crews are building the north portal of the SR 99 tunnel. It’s a huge piece of the overall tunnel project, but it’s largely invisible to the thousands of people that pass by it every day.

About the only place you can see the north portal taking shape is from the viewing deck of the Space Needle because most of the construction is underground, inside a pit that’s every bit as impressive as the launch pit where Bertha, the SR 99 … more